Concert I: Jonty Harrison Friday 5th May. 19:30 • Jonty Harrison, Going Places, 2015, 32.0, 59:55 Going Places, 2015, 32.0, 59:55 • Commission: Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, Electric Spring, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival • Premiere: November 25th, 2015, hcmf// 2015:16. Jonty Harrison, Phipps Concert Hall - Creative Arts Building - University of Hudders- field (Huddersfield, England, UK) To Ali, Clare, and Emma One day, nearly 25 years ago, when I was recording a journey on the Lon- don Underground, a lost overseas visitor asked me directions: that incident gave me the idea for a piece based on the broad theme of travel, and the sense of disorientation, even alienation, it can engender. My habit of always carrying sound recording equipment started in the early 1990s when I became interested in capturing everyday sonic events that somehow indicated their geographical location. I have amassed quite a sound library over the past 25 years, but only started to investigate these materials methodically in 2014, with three re- lated works: Hidden Vistas - a 20-channel gallery piece, premiered at the Ikon Gallery in Birmingham (England, UK); Espaces cach´es - a 30- channel concert work, premiered at the Klang! ´electroacoustique 2014 festival in Montpellier (France); and Secret Horizons - a 14-channel installation work, composed for Birmingham Sculpture Trail and premiered at the RBSA Gallery in Birmingham. My approach in these three works was to ‘present’ the material, but in a way that, given the geographical disparity of some of the concurrently sound- ing materials, would be impossible in ‘real life’: we cannot, physically, be in two places at once, but it is entirely possible in the aural domain, especially if recognition and personal memory are evoked and involved. Presenting these works using large loudspeaker arrays, often in different rooms or areas of a single room, aided the illusion I was trying to create. I felt, however, that I wanted to subject this material to a more ‘in-depth’ acousmatic investigation, so was delighted when Pierre Alexandre Tremblay, one of my former PhD students at the University of Birmingham (England, UK) and now Professor of Music at the University of Huddersfield (England, 1 UK), asked me to compose a 60-minute multichannel work when I retired - it was the perfect opportunity. A ‘rough guide’ I thought it might be useful to offer some ‘signposts’ (this is a project about travel, after all!) - not to tell you what you ‘should’ be hearing, but sim- ply to enhance and complement your listening experience (and to give you something else to do if you get bored!). The musical moments or ‘scenes’ (some clearly delineated, others overlapping) are all completely artificially constructed. Some border on reportage or documentary; others are more fanciful but they all have their origins in specific locations. Telling you what and where these locations might be does not, I hope, detract from the aural experience. We begin and end in Italy, my second home. Between these scenes - one implying imminent motion, the other more restful and tranquil - we flit erratically and unpredictably between other locations in Europe, Iceland, Australia, North America, North Africa and parts of Asia, and the means of travel (trains, cars, planes, ships, etc) are lurking almost throughout. But the logic of the narrative (if there is one) does not lie in the geographical connections or distances but in the sonic journey: the relationships and con- trasts - spectral, rhythmic and spatial - that I had enormous pleasure in discovering within this huge range of material. I hope you enjoy the ride. 1. Railway stations in Florence, Pisa, Rome, and Castelfiorentino (Italy) 2. Crickets on the Great Ocean Road, Victoria (Australia), plus events from the Red Centre and Queensland (Australia) 3. Buskers and bustle in Jemaa el-Fnaa, Marrakech (Morocco) 4. On the SkyRail, passing over birds in the tropical canopy, in Queens- land (Australia) 5. Wind, tourists, kr´ıa (Arctic terns) and other birds on Snæfellsnes (Ice- land) 6. Subterranean glacial stream and ice melt in a cave on the S´olheimaj¨okull glacier (Iceland), plus resonating cables from the Hellissandur radio mast on Snæfellsnes (Iceland) 7. Idling steam locomotive and on board the Kuranda Scenic Railway in Queensland (Australia) 2 8. Geothermal pools at Selt´un (Iceland), and Rotorua (New Zealand) extent in fugal textures. In the case of Imago timbre is equivalent to the melodic line in a contrapuntal work. There are five independent ‘klangfar- 9. Near and far: distant railroad horns in wintry Ohio (USA) with a benmelodie lines’ heard throughout which are highly fluid. The languidly close-up of track sounds from the UK and South Australia undulating high frequency pulsations heard in the middle section coalesce 10. Circular Quay, with buskers, ferries and trains, framed by the ocean into bell tones for instance. I have attempted to employ imitation and to liner Queen Mary 2 leaving port, in Sydney (Australia) preserve the integrity of each timbral line to invest the whole with internal consistency. 11. Floating quays strain at their moorings near Sydney Opera House (Aus- Spatialisation is accomplished by separating the audio into frequency tralia) zones. This produces a new improvisatory dimension since the projection of the material into space and subsequent motion actually generates new 12. Underwater echoes of the quays, plus barnacles in Sydney Harbour timbral lines as a consequence of the segregation of the audio stream. (Australia), near the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland (Australia) and Finally as a spiritual artist I also want my creations to reflect the Imago off Corfu (Greece) Dei (God Image). I believe that there is a lineage descending from God 13. Street demonstration in Montpellier (France) through to the artist and his work. Compositions in any medium reflect the human image in a manner equivalent to the way in which the human reflects 14. Harbours, boats and swifts in Corfu and Poros (Greece) the Imago Dei. The process of transformation into the Image of Christ causes the artists work to reflect the Divine essence more vividly. In this sense the 15. More boats straining at their moorings, this time at the yacht club in title is a reference to my foundational creative principle. Boston (Massachusetts, USA) Ishmael Beckford-Tongs: I am currently pursuing an MA in Electronic 16. Insects, frogs and monkeys in the equatorial rainforest in Bako National and Computer music having spent several years studying Jazz and Electroa- Park in Borneo (Malaysia) coustic Music. My fascination with timbre led me to focus on Electroacoustic music. Much of my research revolves around the spectral characteristics of 17. Pipes and drums: ghaitas (double reed instruments) in Marrakech (Mo- sound which has led to me exploring the prosodic features of poetry from a rocco), piccolo bands parading during the Basler Fasnacht (Carnival of musicological perspective. Basel) (Switzerland), bagpipers (yes, really!) in Morelia (Mexico) and a religious procession with firecrackers in Thailand counterpoint coins being placed in offerings bowls in the Wat Pho (the Temple of the Reclining Buddha) in Bangkok (Thailand) 18. Wheels on the rails resonate through the washroom sink on a UK train, plus friction squeaks from Eurotunnel train carriages 19. Call and response: calls to prayer in Istanbul (Turkey) and Marrakech (Morocco - complete with nesting storks clattering their beaks) fuse with the voices of singers on gondolas in Venice (Italy) and market callers in Melbourne (Australia) 20. In transit: announcements in airports - in Bangkok (Thailand), Bris- bane (Australia), Helsinki (Finland), and Dubai (United Arab Emi- rates), plus my homage to Bernard Parmegiani with his indicatif used between 1971 and 2005 at Paris Charles de Gaulle airport (France) and on planes, trains, and boats, including a vaporetto in Venice (Italy) 3 20 texture of the background noise. My objective was to create a cohesive piece 21. An insect chorus at dusk on the night of a lunar eclipse in the tropical of music featuring different sections by utilising a range of electroacoustic rainforest in Queensland (Australia) merging into pedestrian signals techniques and hardware such as synthesizers, samplers, granulators as well at intersections and ships’ bells at the Museum of Old and New Art as time stretching, arranging and cutting sounds with built in effects from (MONA) in Hobart (Tasmania, Australia); brief appearances from a Adobe Audition. In the past I have always begun my compositions with an train bell in Oakland (California, USA) and trams and crossing signals extra-musical concept, therefore this is a new and creative approach for me in Melbourne (Australia) as I was intrigued by the walrus recording whilst searching for samples on the Macaulay Library Catalogue. 22. Bells from Chartres (France), Venice (Italy), Berlin (Germany) and Albrecht Lange is a former student of the BA English and Music pro- Corfu (Greece), plus the clock in Montaione (Tuscany, Italy) gramme at University of Leeds. He is now pursuing a masters degree in 23. Notturno Canada. Going / Places, a 32-channel work, was realized in 2015 at the com- Charlotte Bickley, DK/LOB, stereo, 10:30 poser’s studio in Birmingham (England, UK) and premiered on Novem- ber 25th, 2015 during the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival in the A performance of the Qawwali Research Unit’s I will go with the Yogi at the Phipps Concert Hall of the University of Huddersfield (England, UK). Thanks Huddersfield Electric Spring 2016 festival provided conceptual inspiration for go to a large number of people and organisations for their contributions to DK/LOB. This audiovisual composition takes a recording of a performance this work and their assistance in its creation: by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and uses it as a structural and musical founda- tion; merging new, electroacoustic aspects with the original recording.